Church Politics In Goa

TEOTONIO R. DE SOUZA, SJ. FELLOW OF THE INSTITUTE

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS?

Separata do Boletimdo Institute Menezes Braganea, N.. 166

-- 1992

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107

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? * Teotonio R.de Soiwa SJ. Fellow of the I~lstitutc

Introduction eorge Fernandes a Christian born labour leader, has been accusing Mr. Eduardo Faleiro, the M.B. of a predominately Christian dorninated constituency of South Goa and Unior: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, of playing "Church Card" in politics to sabotage the Konkan Railway Project. (Herald, Panjim, 20- 1-92) There was a counter statement in a local daily of 21- 1-92 wherein a local political leader sees the official stand of the Church more in keeping with the welfare of Goak population and territory. He refers to the so-called "Church card" as "people's card". An official press-note issued on the same date by the Director of the Diocesan Service Centre for Social Action rejects insinuationsin the press of any one -sided manipulation of the Church authorities over the issue of Konkan Railway Alignment.

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What has been the role of the Catholic Church in Goa since liberation? It has definitely freed itself significantly from its preliberation shackles and is trying to witness to hopes and aspirations of the common people. In the process of this witnessing it cannot escape the fate of its masters who was accused of being a subverter of the law and murdered on a cross. While the hangovers of the colonial past have hindered its progress, the immersion of the Church into a seculardemocratic system (with communal tensions) has been a major

* (Talk at the Seminar on "Society,Religion c l r u i Politics in Goa and Maharashtra", Goa University,Jan. 22-24, 1992)

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challenge to which it has responded fairly commendably over the last four decades. Every decade brought its own challenges: Survival in 60s, Ramponkars .in 70s' Languages in 80s, and Tourism in 90s. We shall briefly look into these areas of the Church involvement and try to understand how it saw them as'important issues of people's welfare to which it could not remain alien.

Early Post-Liberation Phase The Church of Goa has been accused earlier for encouraging vote for keeping Goa out of Maharashtra in the first Assembly elections and in the Opinion Poll in early 1960s. Following the liberation the democratic process ir, Goa had begun where it should have begun, namely with village panchayati raj in October 1942. It changed the entire character of the political process in Goa. No elections of the Portuguese type had any parallel with the universal suffrage that brought the propertyless and uneducated masses into consideration for the first time. The elections for the first Legislative Assembly the next year fiirther strengthened the process. The classes that had been most neglected by the Portuguese suddenly shot to power. Hindu Brahmins and Christians bhatkars and their retinues entered a period of expiation for their past sins. The Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party and its Bahujan Samaj ideology was an expression of populism that sought to whip up communal feelings, using Marathi language and the merger issue as key platforms.The penetration of the rural electorate was done quite effectively with promises of land reforms that would give land to the tiller and of tenancy reform that would protect the mundkar against eviction. While the Hindu elite vote got divided between the Congress and the United Goans Party, most Christians regardless of class or caste rallied round the UGP in spite of the fact that conversion to Christianity four and half centuries ago had failed to make them equal socially or economically. Even if the Christians were aware of this intracommunity problems the new political scenarib offered them no other alternative but to stick together as a community till the Opinion Poll of 1967 which marked the end of a rnajor phase in Goa's political growth.

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? Goan Politics and Church after 1967 In the new phase religion and caste continued to provide pre-given organisational and mobilisational platforms as elsewhere in the country, but political alliances now follow more the class interests cutting across the traditional religious and caste groupings. This new phase also coincided with the aftermath of major changes within the Catholic Church internationally and also in-India. There had been major selfquestioning within the Church and the responsibility of the laity and greater sharing of responsibility was being stressed. There was a Seminar on "The Church in Goa Today" in 1968 in preparation for a national seminar on "The Church in India Today" in 1970. The seminar in Goa prepared the ground for an organised renewal of the Archdiocese. The immediate results were the establishment of a Priest's Senate, some Diocesan Centres for special apostolates, and a Pastoral Bulletin. In 1978 aDiocesan Pastoral Council was set up, and the process is on for establishing parish level councils. ~ uthis t process of democratisation has not been without its problems. This could be seen from the open manisfestation of protests against the authority of the official Church. Not that such incidents were new or unknown. The Christians who took part in the struggle for Goa's freedom had done so under penalty of being considered unfaithful children of the Church controlled by the colonial authorities. In the earlier centuries of the Portuguese rule the native priests and even a Bishop had instigated political rebellions against the Portugueserule in Goa. But in the post-liberation context it was an experience of the democratic revolution inside an ecclesiastical set-up that was not sufficiently cleaned from the inherited attitudes and m d u s operandi. The challenges from within came from different quarters: From lay people, as well as from the diocesan priests and from areligious congregation. There were some-priestswho had their personal agendas that did not receive official Church approval and went seeking support from other quarters, including the government. Among cases that invited greater publicity, we could list the Christ-Ashram of Nuvem, the Independent Church of Cuncolim, the Women's Hostel at Instituto Piedade and the Verna Ashram of Pilar dissidents.

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In Solidarity with Ramponkars * Priests and many Christians leaders were involved in actively supporting the struggle of the ramponkurs or traditional fishermen since mid 1970s. The then Chief Minister Sashikala Kakodkar issued a press statement and also wrote to the Church authorities deploring the circular issued by the Administrator Apostolic on 30 Jan. 1978, in which he had expressed sympathies for the sufferings, preoccupations and anxieties of the "ramponkars" and had advised. all faithful to pray for a quick and peaceful solution, based on demands of social justice and dignity of human person. The Church refused to see a s merely a political issue a a situation that affected the living of a large section of the population. (Ren. Feb.15, 1978, p.55). The government of Shahikala Kakodkar showed its irritation over the issue by siding with the 'rebel' nun and some working girls who refused to vacate the Instituto Piedade in February 1978. The government sought to question the right of the Archbishop to control the premises and claimed State ownership of the . building. The State also laid arbitrary claim to many other properties of the Church (Ren.;ian.l5, 1980 ; Goa Today, May 1981, pp, 11,26.) The government also tried to humiliate the Archbishop (Patriarch since March 1978) by threatening to withdraw the privilege of priority pass for feny crossing. Such pettiness on the part of the Government possibly contributed to lowering its popularity, to its downfall at the end of 1979 after many years of unchallenged rule, and to its political limbo ever since. It is important to recall that the Assembly elections coincided with the elections for the Lok Sabha and the Christian community was strongly agitated over the issue of freedom of Religion Bill, 1978 brought forward by a Janata M.P. The open hostility of the local government towards the Church authorities over the above mentioned issues could have easily mixed up in people's mind with the general mood created by the Tyagi Bill and protests it provoked in Goa and elsewhere in the country by the minority religious communities. Following theelections and victory of Congress U, a prominent lay-woman wrote to the Archdiocesan Bulletin: "Politics is an integral part of life, and hence every Catholic is in duty bound not only to interest himself, but where

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? possible to get involved in it. It is interesting therefore to find as many christians in the new legislature... Christian politicians, it is hopes, will accept their success from the hand of God and will endeavour to cany out their responsibility in a spirit of service and dedication... It would be wrong on our part to except privileges from them merely because they are christians. All we should demand are our legitimate rights... It is incumbent on each one of us t o clean the Augean stables of po!itics and to project a vigorous picture of the Church in Goa" (Ren., Jan, 15,1980). For People's Language and Survival The Church was also accnsed of taking
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harassment of members of a 'particular community". The press note categorically stated that the Church was in no way connected with the developments, and it demanded that all violence-should stop forthwith, no matter from what quarters it originated. (Ren. Jan 15, 1987) .When the Official Language Bill was passed, the Pastoral bulletin we!comed the compromise as a better part of realism, though it did not hide its disappointment manifested in the use of a rather strong expression "bigamy" to describe the place accorded to Marathi language in the Bill. (Ren. March 1, 1987, p. 85)

Against Corruption of Youth and the Nature The Church of Goa hadangered the Goan business community for spoiling their chances of exploiting the Carnival as "Goan Christian fesiival". The celebration of Carnival had died down during the last years v abetter l of the Portuguese regime, and perhaps only in ~ a ~ u s ~ c m iwas organized and it coincided with the feast of the Chapel of Suissos. it commemorated the defeat of Ranes and Bhosles. After liberation, it was only from 1963 that the Carnival was developed into a tourist attraction by the Government. It began attracting some opposition from religious groups owing to growing liberties in dress and behaviour, and particularly the drug abuse. The Carnivalfloat in New Delhi in 1983 was regarded by some as "scandalous" and it marked the beginning of arnore open opposition from the Church. The Pastoral Council issued a circular strongly objecting to "the values projected during the celebration % they jeopardised ethical values". The Pastoral bulletin of Feb. 1repeated the objection next year with'a, stem warning: "Beware of the coming tamasha". It w m e d the Catholics not to allow their children to be a sort of prey and pleasure toys for the benefit of the tourist industry", condemning in the most energetic terms, "this grotesque andhedonistic business-sponsored and Government sponsored tamasha for the benefit of some and to the prejudice of manyw.-TheChurch went a step firtherand the Pastoral Council stated that the use of the Panjim Church square for the Carnival celebration was hurting the religious feelings of the Catholic using the said square, for the forthcoming Carnival celebrations (Ren.

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? March 1,1985, p. 98-9). The stand taken by the Church seems to have had its impact, and the Carnival has been a muted affair ever since, and the opposition to it is no longer from the Church, but from other socially concerned individuals and watch-groups that have been keeping a check on the interest of big business in tourism. In May 1988 the Goa Diocesan Pastoral Council sub-commission on tourism expressed deep concern over the erosion of moral values, economic exploitation, cultural degradation and ecological destruction that are direct consequences of tourism development. Early November 1990 the Archdiocese of Goa hosted a Consultation on Tourism sponsored by the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India. The industrial commercial lobby is likely to be sore over this interferenceofthe Church and will interpret it as "politically" motivated. (Ren. Aug.'l5,1988, pp. 290-300, 1 Jan. 1992, pp. 9, 19)

In Conclusion It is very comfortable for the powers-that-be to have a holy woman like Mother Theresa just taking awaiall the shit we produce, so that we go on indefinitely producing the same by-products of our civilisation. Theliberal-democraticcapitalistworld system iscontended with a hol; sewage system which it promptly honours with Nobel prizes and other awards. The Church in India has begun responding to the poor as required by the mission of Jesus. At anational convention of Catholics in Bombay . Church was declared a serious sin in 1989 the caste discrimination i ~the to be overcome. At their biennial general meeting in Pune last week the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) took up for deliberation the plight of dalits, women and unorganised labour, and called for immediate step to improve their lot (Camil Parkhe, "CBCI workshop on social concerns", The Navhind Times,Panjim ,20-1-92.) Religion that is not meaningful to cope with life stresses is of no use.

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Religions that have become over-organised have also become fossilised. All religions begin as instruments of change, but then become instruments for maintenance of status quo, and even of opression. There is a dialectic of the priest and the prophet at work in every religion. There is need of healthy balance between the two roles. Dom elder Camara, a radical Bishop of Brazil, has a saying: When I help the poor and work for them, everybody calls me a saint. When I dare to ask the reasons why they are poor, people call me communist. Well, then I would prefer to be a communist than a saint." (R.?annikar, 1988). Someone has said that that religions were started by laymen and carried on by priests. I believe that Jesus did not start Christianity as a religion. He was teaching the poor and oppressed masses of his society a nzw way of living that represented a protest against the oppressive political rule of Rome and the exploitative domination of the socio- religious hierarchy of the Jewish society. The basic thrust of his intervention was social with political implications. The administrative organisation evolved gradually and so did the new hierarchical authoritive power of the Church. It was only when Constantine, the Roman emperor, co-opted the new religion as official religion of the Church that Christianity in the West became an imperial tool of the roman empire, while in the East it came under the sway of the Byzantine empire. This tradition continued under the western colonial and imperial regimes, There were intra-Church protests all through, but it is only from the end of the colonial era that the Christianity of the Third World has been helping the Christianity at large to recover the Christianity of Jesus. It was in latin America that this recovery began under the label of Liberation Theology in early 60s. The Western world was appalled with the use made by liberation theologians of Marxist analysis of the society and by their willingness to justify violence to counter state violence, (Rosino Gibellini, 1979;.Alberto Rossa, 1986; Daniel H. Levine, 1986). Under the impact of Vatican 11(1963-1965) the Catholic Church

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? opened itself to a new self understanding, but it was still from a Western perspective. The liberation theology of Latin America was a new contribution to the self understanding of the Church and it is beginning to understand the salvation in terms of the kingdom of God that Jesus had preached, and a kingdom that had its roots in this life. Hence, the Church has begun to recover the revolutionary potentialities of the Gospel, which questions the absoluteness of any wordly institutions and solutions that do injustice to a great majority of God's children who are promised better times in life after death. The Church has also begun looking upon itself as People of GOD in pilgrimage andpermanently in need of self purification. It is an important check against the sacralisati~nof any institution. The Christian revolution consists in refusal to absolutise any political. order and therein it contains seeds of change and de-establisation. (Concilium, 1969). To that extent the Christianity, rather than the institutional churches, is essentially politically subversive. It is in this sense that Christianity in the Third World has emerged from its experienceof exploitation at the hands if the Christians from the First World and is now able to display the power of the same Christianity as a counter-culture and a form of social resistance and protest. Since 1976 the Third World Christian Theologians have come together in a group known as EATWOT (=Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians ) to evolve a counter discourse that is challenging that west-oriented ad narrowly Christian understanding of the world and history. The Third World Theology sees the poverty as experienced by the majority of G,od9schildren as a degradation of the divine image on earth. It is a social sin to be eradicated. I have spoken to you today,asa Goan historian but also as a Jesuit priest, and a member of EATWOT.

I do not claim that prejudices and some class interests do not enter into the Church led campaigns or social causes, but I feel good about greater democratisation that is at work in the Church and about the onel which do not seek going self-critque in the light of the ~ o s ~principles

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the welfare of any single community but embrace all in need of love and concern.

SELECT REFERENCE MATERIALS I . A Cry for Justice. Compiled by Lionel Fernandes, Teresa Albuquerque and Louis D7Silva.Bombay, ~ . ~ . ~ . , * 1 9 8 9 2. A. Adappur, "The Winds of Change", The Illustrated Weekly of India, Aug. 4, 1985, pp. 32-5.

3. Adrian Hasting, African Catholicism, London, SCM Press, 1989.

4. Alberto Rossa,ed., The Theology.of liberation, Quezon City, Claretian Publications, 1986. 5. All India Seminar on the Church in India Today (Bangalore, May 15-25, 1969): Workshop Handbooks, New Delhi, CBCI Centre, 1969.

6. Ana Maria Bidegain de Uran, Iglesia, Pueblo y Politics, Bogota, Universidad Javeriana, 1985. 7. Andrew Reding, ed., Christianity andRevolution: Tomas Borge's Theology of Life, New York, Orbis Books, 1987. 8. Asghar Ali Engineer, "Religion and Liberation", EPW, Oct. 29, 1988, pp. 2265-2266.

9. Barrington Moore, Jr., Social origins of dictatorships and democracy, Middlesex, Penguin Books, 1987.

lb. Bharat Patankar & Gail Ornvedt, "The Dalit Liberation Movement in Colonial Period", Econcmic and Political Weekly, Annual Number, February, 1979, pp.409-424. 11. Carmo Azavedo, "The CarnavalrTo end it or to mend it?", Goa Today, March 1985,.pp.9-11.

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS?

-------------------,Patriot & Saint: The Lge Story of Father Alvaresl .Bishop Mar Julius I, Panjim 1988. D.A. Carson, ed., The Church in the Bible and the World, Exeter, The Paternoster Press, 1987. D.S. Amalorpavadass, The Indian Church in the Struggle for a New Society, Bangalore, NBCLC, 1981. Daniel H. Levine ed., Religion'and Political Conflict in Latin America; Chapel Hill, The University of North carolina Press, 1986. Edward Schillebeeckx, World and Church, London, Sheed and Ward, 1982.

Enrique Dussel, A History of the Church in Latin America: Colonialism to Liberation, Michigan, Eerdmans Publ. Co., 1981.

G. Shiri, Karnataka Christians and Politics, Madras C.L;S. 1978. Gospel and Revolution (Pastoral Letter from the Third World), offprint of Temoignage Chretien, Paris, August 10967. Written in recife (Brazil) under the direction of Archbishop Dom Helder Camara. Ivan Fera, "The Lost Tribe" (The Jesuits), The Illustrated Weekly of India, Nov. 20, 1988, pp. 46-7. Jack Clancey, ed., Labor and the Church in Asia, Hong Kong, Center for the Progress of Peoples, 1983. Jacob Kavunakl, Mission of an emerging world Church Indore, Satprakashan, .1986,23. Jerry Rosario, "With the Poor", Seminar 339, November, 1987, pp. 15-17. Joseph Ratzingei, Church, Ecumenism & Politics, New York, St. Paul Publications, 1988.

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24. M.J. Joseph, "Class, Caste, Church and the Left", EPW. Dec. 3, 1988, pp.2573-2574. 25. Martinho Noronha, "The Goan Church in a changing society,'' Goa Today, 17-19. 26. Michael Curtis, ed., The Great Political Theories, 2 vols., New York, Avon Books, 1981. 27. Patrocinio Barreto, "Goa Government's Claim on Church Properties", Goa Today, May 1981, pp. 11,26. 28. Reginald Stackhous'e,Christianity and Politics, Suffolk, The English Universities Press, 1966. , 29. Renovacao (PastoralBulletin of the krchdiocese of ~ o a )1970-91. 30. Report: The National Convention of Catholics (2-5) June, 1989) The Catholic Community of India: Towards the 21st Century, Bombay, N.c.C. 1989. 51. Report ofthe General Meeting of the CCBI (Goa, Jan. 6-8,1991), Panaji, CCBT Secretariat, 1991. 32. Raimundo Pannikar,"Keys to the Kingdom", The Illustrated Weekly of India, Oct. 30, 1988, pp.38-41. 33. Ricardo Antoncich, Christians in theface of injustice, New York, Orbis Books, 1987. 34. Rosino Gibellini, ed., Frontiers of theology in Latin America, New York, Orbis Books, 1979. 35. S. Arokyasamy & G. Gispert-Sauch, eds., Liberation in Asia: Theological Perspectives, Anand, Gujarat Sahitiya Prakash, 1987. 36. "Sacralization and Secularization in the History of the Church", Concilium, 7, No. 5, London, Bums & Oates, 1969. 37. Satish Saberwal, "On the rise of institutions, o r , the Church and .

CHURCH CARD OR PEOPLE'S CARD IN GOAN POLITICS? kingship in.medieva1Europe", Studies in History, 7,1,n.s. (1991), New Delhi, Sage Publications, pp. 107-134. 38.

Sebastian Kappen, "The Priest as Activist", The Illustrated Weekly of India, Augut 12, 1990,pp.56-8.

39. Stan Lourdusamy, Religion as Political Weapon, Calcutta, Multi Book Agency, 1990.

40. Sunder Clarke, Let theIndian Church be Indian, Madras, C.L.S., 1985. 41. Teotonio R. de Souza, "'Goan Catholicism and the Liberation" Goa Today December 1986, pp. 47-5 1. 42.0 .................... , "The emerging Church of the poor", Goa Today, April 1988, pp. 12-16. 43. .................... . The Portuguese in Asia and their Church patronage7', Western Coloniali.sm in Asia and Christianity, ed., M.D. David, Bombay, Himalaya Publishing House, 1988, pp. 1129. 44. -- -- -- --------------,"Church and political transition in Goa, 19611988" Tripod No. 50, 1989, pp. 40-55. 45 ----- ----------- , ed., Essays in Goan History, Delhi, Concept Publ. Co.., 1989. ---;

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46. The Emerging Church of the Poor (Statement of the National Conference of Christian Political Activists, Social Scientists and Theologians, Madras, Jan. 2-4,1986), Madurai. vanguard Press, 1986. 47. "The Irruption of the Third Woild: Challege to Theology" (Statement of the Vth Conference of the Ecumenical Association ofThird World Theologians, New Delhi, August 17-29, 1981) Vidyajyoti, February 1982, pp. 8 1-96.

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48. Tissa Balasssuriya, Right Relationships: De-routing and Re, rooting of Christian Theology, Sri Lanka, Centre for Society and Religion, 1991. 49. Valerian Cardinal Gracias,Christianity and Asian Cultures, Bombay, Examiner Press, 1970.

50. Virginia Fabella, Asia's Struggle for Full Humanity, New York, Orbis Books, 1980. 5 1. Vishwapriya L. Iyengar, "Fisherpeople of Kerala" EP W , Dec.7, 1985, pp. 2149-2154.

52. Walter M. Abbot, ed., The Documents of Vatican II, New York, Corpus Books, 1966.

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